So it’s been about 3-4 months since we’ve seen the release of Alex, and I’m sure a lot of people myself and other frequenters of the Alex sub-forum have ideas and suggestions in regards to the balancing of the character. This thread is going to become an unofficial list of changes that different people want, jot them down and if Capcom ever announces a balance patch I can round up all of the sensible suggestions and send them to Peter or whoever handles the community feedback.

General rules to abide by, to not look like a dummy -

Keep the balance changes “sensible” meaning that the character is still fair and doesn’t become overpowered through your changes.

Write a short sentence or two about why you think the change you suggest should happen.

Try to build upon each other’s suggestions, if you feel something needs to be built upon.

My proposed changes

Lower the overall frame-count of Alex’s forward dash by 2f to make it 17f from 19f.
This change would drastically improve Alex’s pressure and oki, giving him more chances to close the gap and pressure on wake-up or make dash-in from mid-range in neutral a bigger threat.

Increase st.lk’s hitstun and lower it’s start-up to 4f.
Alex has some issues when punishing certain -4 moves, because his only 4f tools available are cr.lp/st.lp with their piss poor range. This can cause issues for Alex’s punishment game and let certain characters disrespect him, making st.lk 4f and allowing it’s hitstun to link into l.chop gives Alex a solid 4f option with range to punish with.

Make st.lp +3 on block.
A way to fix the issue Alex has with 3f normal mashing is by making his st.lp +3 on block, making st.lp > st.mp a 3f gap to beat them. People propose that having a +3 on block normal may be too strong for a character with a 6f command grab, but because the change would be applied to st.lp it heavily reduces the range and opportunities we would actually have to mix the opponent up. Laura, Mika, Birdie and Gief ALL have light moves that give them a 3f gap into command grab. Alex is the only grappler that does not have this luxury and it isn’t fair on him. I think this change needs to happen quite desperately to bring him in line with every other grappler in the game.

Make st.hk -3 on block.
St.hk is one of Alex’s most rewarding yet risky buttons, and I’m a little sad with how it’s currently -4 on block. If the normal itself was -3 we make it 0 on block at best through making it hit meaty. This at least lets Alex pressure with a meaty st.hk and at least have a fighting chance to not lose his turn. Making this change also avoids punishment from 4f attacks on regular hit, which is why I think this button isn’t worth using at the moment.

Slightly increase Powerbomb’s range.
An issue with Alex’s staple “m.chop/f.hp into st.mp/powerbomb” set-ups is that characters with fast walkspeeds can sometimes just walk out of your mix-up. The Powerbomb range is one of the shortest in the game and I think it needs to be slightly adjusted to connect more consistently after non point-blank m.chops.

Remove st.mk’s lower hurtbox and allow it to stuff low attacks.
This change is fairly straight forward. Alex has a cr.mp to poke at long distances with, he also has a st.mk that looks as if it stuffs buttons that would stuff his cr.mp, except it doesn’t and st.mk is pretty useless right now. Pull back the lower hurtbox and let it stuff low attacks, considering our slow walkspeed and reliance on cr.mp at mid-range I think it shows how weak the rest of his normals can really be when poking.

Make EX Headbutt and EX Stomp track automatically and remove their manual aiming.
Some people like that you can manually aim the stomp and headbutt, but personally I would prefer to hold a charge whilst I’m in the Stomp animation so I’m ready to confirm into elbow if the stomp is blocked and I go into st.mp. This is a small quality of life change, but it allows Alex to hold charge whilst pressuring from the air which can be a strong damage conversion/corner carry change.

Extend f.hp’s lower hitbox so it connects on it’s earlier frames at longer distances.
I doubt this one needs explaining, I’m only looking for 1half/or fourth-ish of a training square more in terms of range but it would allow Alex to get consistent set-ups like his v-reversal > dash > f.hp without it whiffing because of the distancing from his opponent.

Extend the Knee hitbox horizontally, lower the hurtbox.
This special serves little to no purposes outside of being a combo ender. I’m not happy with that, I feel it should anti-air just a little better than it currently does. Lowering the hurtbox and extending it’s horizontal hitbox improves on that.

EX Knee to be given earlier upper body invincibilty.
Again this is in regards to his Knee Smash just not doing what it’s supposed to be doing, it should be a strong anti-air option yet it isn’t. There isn’t any need to expend bar for EX Knee because you can just st.lp into a mix-up more consistently and safely. The Knee needs to be fine tuned to do what it’s made to do - anti-air.

Minimal forward walkspeed changes
I feel like Alex’s forward walkspeed is slower than it needs to be. I think ever so slightly increasing it would let him walk in and out of ranges and improve his overall poking ability. When I say minimal I mean minimal, he SHOULD be a slow character, I want the smallest change possible, like 0.05 of an increase.

Adjust his V-Skill to give normals better advantages on block as well as hit.Probably too crazy
A lot of the changes above would make doing this pretty crazy, but I feel as though we have possibly the worst v-skill in the game right now. If Alex’s v-skill added 1/3 frames of stun to his normals on block as well as hit? It wouldn’t actually be so bad and make our pressure game quite interesting to top it off, but I do feel doing this makes Alex’s pressure straight up godlike but it doesn’t come without it’s weaknesses. Obviously if you get hit, it’s gone, you have to stand around and perform the v-skill to prepare it, and even then you might have to poke them and lose your hard hit when you finally manage to get close and want to use it.

That’s all I have in my head at the moment. If anybody has anything else to add drop it below. I’ll compile all of the suggestions if Capcom ever want community feedback.

I want Capcom to fix his jab when it comes to female characters. My jab whiffs after a blocked f. Fierce on Cammy and Chun is annoying. This wouldn’t be that much of a problem if standing short had more hitstun to cancel into flashchop.

I want regular knees to work as an actual anti-air. They are useless outside of corner combos the way they are now. Having to spend meter for it to work the way it should is dumb to me. I wouldn’t mind if EX worked like in 3S being able to hit grounded but I can take or leave it.

I would like to see his close.mk from 3S come back as b.mk just so he can have a kick button to cancel from and have a defensive button.

Give stomps a wider hitbox. EX stomp should hit out of the air. It annoys me that my opponent can netural jump it to avoid it.

Have f. Fierce force stand on hit. This probably wouldn’t do much but I just feel it should do that.

Make s.mp 5 frames so I can do 2 s.mp as a genuine frame trap against 3f normals.

Technically having f.HP force standing would be a nerf since crouching hitboxes are wider so connecting a st.LP after one would be harder. (Correct me if I’m wrong)
Also, st.MP, st.LP is a 3 frame trap. st.LP xx LP Flash Chop too.

Technically having f.HP force standing would be a nerf since crouching hitboxes are wider so connecting a st.LP after one would be harder. (Correct me if I’m wrong)
Also, st.MP, st.LP is a 3 frame trap. st.LP xx LP Flash Chop too.

I never had an issue linking st.lp after a f.HP. like a said, it’s a change that probably won’t change much. I just feel it’s a property it should have.

Yeah, I was thinking about it in a detached bubble type scenario in which crouching hitboxes are wider than standing ones but at the distance that st.LP would whiff on them standing, it’s much more likely that the f.HP wouldn’t connect on someone crouching in the first place.
Derp.

I want Capcom to fix his jab when it comes to female characters. My jab whiffs after a blocked f. Fierce on Cammy and Chun is annoying. This wouldn’t be that much of a problem if standing short had more hitstun to cancel into flashchop.

I want regular knees to work as an actual anti-air. They are useless outside of corner combos the way they are now. Having to spend meter for it to work the way it should is dumb to me. I wouldn’t mind if EX worked like in 3S being able to hit grounded but I can take or leave it.

I would like to see his close.mk from 3S come back as b.mk just so he can have a kick button to cancel from and have a defensive button.

Give stomps a wider hitbox. EX stomp should hit out of the air. It annoys me that my opponent can netural jump it to avoid it.

Have f. Fierce force stand on hit. This probably wouldn’t do much but I just feel it should do that.

Make s.mp 5 frames so I can do 2 s.mp as a genuine frame trap against 3f normals.

I initially thought to myself about 5f st.mp, but the issue with that is that it could kill some oki set-ups by making it hit non-meaty. So it could be seen as a nerf. There’s a workaround that still gives him a good 3f trap option though, like @Zachara said we have 3f trap options but the issue is they either lack a hell of a lot range - st.mp, st.lp - or they make us lose our turn or even worse get punished - cr.lp xx l.chop.

Make st.lp +3 on block to make st.lp, st.mp a 3f trap. Simple fix, also gives us a 3f gap to go into Powerbomb like every other damn grappler in the game has from a light attack. Seriously though, WHY DOESN’T ALEX HAVE THIS OPTION? EVEN BIRDIE DOES.

Make st.hk -3 on block. - I can get behind this change. Would give more of a reason to use the button since it is one of the buttons that I don’t use outside of stun combos.Slightly increase Powerbomb’s range. - I would personally only increase Hyper Bomb’s range to give it a true reason to be used. Not having any additional properties like throw invincibility means I almost never use it and increasing the range slightly would give a reason without changing the properties/frame data. I can’t remember the exact thing I was doing but I had a set up which must’ve placed Alex 0.1 of a training mode square too far out to Hyper Bomb and looking at it I was like “Bison can almost reach that far and he doesn’t even really reach”. The rest I feel are OK if EX is buffed.AAKnee/f.HP/st.MK Hitbox Adjustments - Can’t argue with these. st.MK isn’t awful but it does get hit in situations that leave me scratching my head.cr.HP - plz fix. kthxbaiDash from 19>17 - I don’t want that but that’s because it screws with a lot of my set ups. Seriously though, I don’t feel his dash is too slow and he’s always got the Elbow to get across the screen quickly. I’m almost certain I’m in the minority here (Minority of One most likely).Adjust his V-Skill to give normals better advantages on block as well as hit.Probably too crazy - I still think that “Hard Hit” and “Counter Hit” should stack. Make f.HP launch them in to space.

Make st.hk -3 on block. - I can get behind this change. Would give more of a reason to use the button since it is one of the buttons that I don’t use outside of stun combos.Slightly increase Powerbomb’s range. - I would personally only increase Hyper Bomb’s range to give it a true reason to be used. Not having any additional properties like throw invincibility means I almost never use it and increasing the range slightly would give a reason without changing the properties/frame data. I can’t remember the exact thing I was doing but I had a set up which must’ve placed Alex 0.1 of a training mode square too far out to Hyper Bomb and looking at it I was like “Bison can almost reach that far and he doesn’t even really reach”. The rest I feel are OK if EX is buffed.AAKnee/f.HP/st.MK Hitbox Adjustments - Can’t argue with these. st.MK isn’t awful but it does get hit in situations that leave me scratching my head.cr.HP - plz fix. kthxbaiDash from 19>17 - I don’t want that but that’s because it screws with a lot of my set ups. Seriously though, I don’t feel his dash is too slow and he’s always got the Elbow to get across the screen quickly. I’m almost certain I’m in the minority here (Minority of One most likely).Adjust his V-Skill to give normals better advantages on block as well as hit.Probably too crazy - I still think that “Hard Hit” and “Counter Hit” should stack. Make f.HP launch them in to space.

Wouldn’t the dash change keep most of the go-to options safe but just make them a 1f gap? I know you have frame-kill set-ups that are pretty much frame perfect though

I can agree with your Powerbomb suggestion, that move has no uses as of right now

Yeah, I was thinking about it in a detached bubble type scenario in which crouching hitboxes are wider than standing ones but at the distance that st.LP would whiff on them standing, it’s much more likely that the f.HP wouldn’t connect on someone crouching in the first place.
Derp.

The only times it whiffs for me is when a character is crouching. st.LP whiffs on Chun, Cammy, Juri and Bison when crouching. I don’t get it and it pisses me off.

-Faster v-reversal
-Stomp (or just ex) hits airborne opponents - this will create a mixup with headbutt (jump or high block) and will make headbutt better as a result
-Better hitbox for s.mp and j.lk. We’ve gotta have the worst crossup attack in the game.
-Armor for ex slash starts on frame 1. Give us something to get out of pressure on wakeup!!!

Increase st.lk’s hitstun and lower it’s start-up to 4f.
Alex has some issues when punishing certain -4 moves, because his only 4f tools available are cr.lp/st.lp with their piss poor range. This can cause issues for Alex’s punishment game and let certain characters disrespect him, making st.lk 4f and allowing it’s hitstun to link into l.chop gives Alex a solid 4f option with range to punish with.

This would have some other consequences. It’s a general damage buff because st.lk does 40 compared to 20/30 for the other light normals, and you’d have access to cr.lp/cr.lk link st.lk or CH cr.mp link st.lk. Alex would also have 3 light normal confirms without a cross-up. Being able to combo into lp chop from further out gives you more options for meter management. Depending on how the frame data would have to be adjusted to make st.lk xx lp chop combo, you might even be able to confirm into VT sledgehammer with cr.lk st.lk VT st.mp SH, which would be savage. I think if they were to reduce the startup to 4 frames they’d probably have to make other adjustments to mitigate the other benefits.

Froztey:

Slightly increase Powerbomb’s range.
An issue with Alex’s staple “m.chop/f.hp into st.mp/powerbomb” set-ups is that characters with fast walkspeeds can sometimes just walk out of your mix-up. The Powerbomb range is one of the shortest in the game and I think it needs to be slightly adjusted to connect more consistently after non point-blank m.chops.

It’s the worst when someone walks back out of a powerbomb. They essentially escaped a command throw mixup by blocking high. pukes

Froztey:

Make EX Headbutt and EX Stomp track automatically and remove their manual aiming.
Some people like that you can manually aim the stomp and headbutt, but personally I would prefer to hold a charge whilst I’m in the Stomp animation so I’m ready to confirm into elbow if the stomp is blocked and I go into st.mp. This is a small quality of life change, but it allows Alex to hold charge whilst pressuring from the air which can be a strong damage conversion/corner carry change.

I think making EX stomp hit airborne opponents (which has already been mentioned) would be a better adjustment. I hate tracking moves in general.

Hawkingbird:

Have f. Fierce force stand on hit. This probably wouldn’t do much but I just feel it should do that.

Pretty sure it already forces stand!

Zachara:

I still think that “Hard Hit” and “Counter Hit” should stack. Make f.HP launch them in to space.

Lower the overall frame-count of Alex’s forward dash by 2f to make it 17f from 19f.

mushdog:

-Faster v-reversal
-Stomp (or just ex) hits airborne opponents - this will create a mixup with headbutt (jump or high block) and will make headbutt better as a result
-Armor for ex slash starts on frame 1. Give us something to get out of pressure on wakeup!!!

I like a lot of the ideas in this thread, but these are the ones I like most, for similar reasons as you all mentioned. Honestly if I had to pick one idea it’d be stomp hitting airborne opponents, because I am addicted to that damn move.

I’d like to see some changes to Power Bomb. The range could stand to be better as others have mentioned, but I think it’s manageable as is. I think another way you could change it is to change where Alex ends up on screen afterwards. I’d like to see it behave similarly to Gief’s SPD. LP SPD puts Gief back in neutral, but HP/EX SPD leaves Gief in pretty close. Right now, all Power Bombs put Alex back in neutral. Alex has good tools for neutral, but it’d be great to be able to be able to work to land the HP/EX Power Bomb and then be able to stay in, rather than have to work your way in again. I don’t think any changes to Power Bomb are essential, but one of these two changes (range or screen position) would be a nice quality of life improvement for him, I think.

There is absolutely no justifiable reason why lp flash chop should be -4. It should be -2. There is also no justifiable reason why st.hk should be -4, that shit should be -2. It’s probably one of the slowest startup normals in the game, why is it unsafe as well?